Property Brothers Help Michelle Obama, Visit Slums In New Delhi

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Property Brothers’ Drew and Jonathan Scott have built a lucrative career out of their expertise in real estate, both as renovators and realtors, and in the process have become TV stars in their native Canada and in America, where they reside in Las Vegas.

The identical twins co-host television shows Property Brothers, Buying & Selling, brand new Brother vs. Brother (seen on W Network in Canada and HGTV in the U.S.) and the just launched Corus radio show, Off-Topic with The Scott Brothers (with older brother J.D.).

But as much good as they might do helping applicants on the shows emerge with their dream home or a sale at a good price, all three brothers also want to give back beyond business.

“Youth infinitives and education are the two big things for us,” Jonathan tells Samaritanmag.

“Instead of one specific cause, it’s youth initiatives, whether it’s kids’ cancer — we worked with the children’s hospital in the oncology ward — whether it’s St. Jude [Children’s Research Hospital], we’ve done a lot of different things that are actually supporting kids initiatives and athletic programs too, getting kids active and out there and having fun.”

Adds Drew, “We were just in DC doing a thing with Michelle Obama, Let’s Read, Let’s Move, getting kids active, getting them reading through the summer.”

Held at the National Building Museum in Washington on Aug. 6, Drew and Jonathan Scott joined U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in guiding hundreds of students as they toured the House & Home/Play, Work, Build exhibitions. The Property Brothers helped the kids get active and excited about reading through storytelling and sharing their experiences of building dream homes.

The 5th annual Let’s Read, Let’s Move was part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign to end childhood obesity in the United States. She recently appeared in a music video for a hip hop album called Songs For A Healthier America.

“Was I not given the opportunity to do a hip hop album?” Jonathan jokes.

“It’s a huge campaign,” Drew continues, “and it was exciting for us to be a part of it, just to see these kids’ faces. We were reading to a group of 100 or 200 kids. A lot of these kids are underprivileged kids and they’d never owned a book before so at the end of it we gave them the books. We had obstacle courses set up in the museum. It was just a fun event for them and basically getting them excited about education.”

All three brothers are also global ambassadors for World Vision, a Christian relief, development and advocacy organization that is dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice, in nearly 100 countries. Drew, Jonathan and J.D. went to New Delhi and visited several slums as part of their commitment to No Child For Sale, which draws attention to child labour and trafficking.

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The brothers spoke to Samaritanmag while they were in Toronto at the Royal Ontario Museum for the charity bash Producers Ball that benefitted World Vision.

“When we went there with World Vision, that was also a very humbling experience because these people who literally have nothing — there’s eight people sleeping in a building that’s no bigger than this square here,” Jonathan says, referring to the space he is standing in with his two brothers next to him. “And yet they opened their arms to us and they welcomed us in and they treated us fantastic.

“We were going over there to build these education centres to teach the kids to read and write in Hindi and in English, so they could get into the mainstream school systems, get out of the slums, and once they’re into the mainstream school system they have the opportunity to get into college, whereas before they wouldn’t have that opportunity.”

* Samaritanmag.com is an online magazine covering the good deeds of individuals, charities and businesses.

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